Bellingham: “More has to be done” to combat racism problem
Real Madrid star Jude Bellingham said “more has to be done” in combating racism in Spanish football, which has become a problem recently.
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Bellingham calls out “massive” racism problem
The 20-year-old midfielder defended his Real Madrid teammates Vinicius Junior and Aurelien Tchouameni, who both have been subjected to racist abuse incidents.
Vinicius has been the recipient of multiple racist abuse instances, and even broke down during a press conference last month.
Meanwhile, a young Mallorca fan made monkey gestures after Tchouameni scored in Madrid’s win on Saturday.
Bellingham said he was not aware of the Tchouaméni incident, since he is already accustomed to the racism problem.
“I didn’t even know,” said the England international. “In games when we go away in LaLiga, you almost get so used to it that I wasn’t even aware of the incident. That’s a massive problem.”
“More has to be done, whether it’s the punishment or how you react to it, or how you move proactively. It’s a horrible way for a player to have to prepare for a game, knowing they’ll probably get racially abused. It’s disgusting, it shouldn’t happen. People in power need to do more, especially with Viní.”
“The blame gets shifted more onto him with his playing style, and the way he likes to express himself, and I don’t think that’s fair. The game would miss Viní if he decided to take a break because of this kind of thing. More needs to be done to support these kinds of players.”
“No one deserves that kind of thing”
Although Bellingham is pessimistic that changes will take place anytime soon, he hopes that the recent events will serve as a wake-up call for the authorities
“It’s sad to hear because I get to know the lads really well personally. No one deserves that kind of thing. It’s definitely a call-out for the people who are in charge to take control. I doubt that will happen,” he said.”
“It’s going to be something that I imagine we will still have to just deal with going into games. But it’s I think that’s one of those things where you have just got to play your game and hope that the people look after you and they’re not doing it well enough at the moment.”
